GOSHEN, Ind. – They may be fictional ancestors, but the women portrayed in Chicago artist Preston Jackson’s bronze sculpture exhibit, “Fresh from Julieanne’s Garden,” tell powerful stories of their lives during the eras of slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction and since.

The exhibit will be on display in Goshen College’s Good Library Gallery beginning on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and through Black History Month, from Jan. 15 to March 2. There will be an artist reception on Sunday, Feb. 4 from 2 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will include 14 bronze castings and two-dimensional portraits of majestic heroines of the U.S. South from the 17th through the early 20th centuries, each with an accompanying personal narrative that draws from historical research and family memoirs.

“They embody the collective soul of black women who met the tribulations of slavery and sexism with stoic resolve and, at times, armed resistance,” said a review in the Chicago Sun-Times. “They paid for their heroism with their lives, and sometimes with their sanity, but never with their dignity.”

Jackson, a professor of sculpture and head of the figurative area at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, seeks to preserve cultural history and explains attitudes in the African American community in this collection. In an artist statement, he stated that his intent isn’t necessarily to reflect bitterness or hostility, but to illustrate the resolution and resiliency of these women and to evoke admiration for the strength they had in the face of hardship.

Jackson has earned degrees at Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He splits his time between Chicago and Peoria, where he owns the Raven Gallery, home of the Contemporary Art Center. In 1998, Jackson was awarded the Order of Lincoln Medallion, Illinois’s highest honor for individual accomplishments.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Multicultural Affairs Office, the Plowshares Grant, and the Harold and Wilma Good Library.

The Library Gallery, located on the lower level of the Wilma and Harold Good Library on the campus of Goshen College, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 11 p.m. Sunday.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.